EU official calls for urgent tourism summit

BRUSSELS: A leading EU official on Tuesday called for a special summit to help Europe's crucial tourism sector, which has been thrown into crisis by the coronavirus pandemic.

Tourism, which accounts for more than 10 percent of the EU's GDP and 12 percent of jobs, has ground to a halt because of travel and lockdown restrictions imposed to slow the spread of COVID-19.

With tourism-dependent southern states such as Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece hit particularly hard, the EU´s internal market commissioner Thierry Breton suggested an emergency summit be held in September or October.

The summit would allow the 27 EU states to "consider the future together and build a roadmap towards sustainable, innovative and resilient European tourism," Breton told members of the European Parliament during a videoconference.